Arisaka

[577/450]

I am going to an auction and rthey are listin two rifles under the heading of

1866 arisaka etiomaza
and
1866 arisaka st. Etienne

and under each listing the are saying
(French foreign legion)
Now I googled the heck out of that and no luck, I know that the two towns mentioned had firearm mfg industries.
Any wild guesses what they might be selling? The auction website don't supply photos.

 

[donor]

AFAIK the only rifle French made in 1866 was needle rifle Chassepot.Did FFL use them?Hell,yes.They used them just the same as French Army(likely longer).

That's likely what it is-a Chassepot,not Arisaka.I'm assuming they got date correctly in the add.

 

[RifleDude]

Arisaka's are Japanese rifles. Before WWII, they never used the western calendar for marking the year of manufacturing. Could you be looking at the French M1866 Chassepot rifle? They were manufactured by Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne (MAS).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chassepot

 

[Old Albertan]

Strange listing indeed. There were Chassepots sent to Japan which were converted there but it would be hard to associate one of these to the FFL however. Many of the chassepots sent to Japan were reportedly captured by the Prussians and sold. And since the Legion fought in the Franco Prussian War, it is possible. But how would one tell? But it could be a misprint or a miscommunication or it could be a rather rare and interesting rifle.

 

[donor]

There might be a historical/archive unit somewhere in FFL just like in let's say Marines but French Historical Defence Service might be good start as well.

http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/

Honestly,I don't think they will have records of Chassepot serial numbers going that far back.Likely destroyed long ago.

 

[pcvando]

Lol... sounds like they really don't know what they have...

I suspect it could be a Chassepot, gras or maybe even a Lebel 1886... PM me a link, I can tell you what it is for certain.

Cheers

 

[fredqc]

From the pictures i saw, the first one could be an arisaka t38 in poor shape. The 2 is a 1886m93 lebel for sure. They have pictures.

 

[Eaglelord17]

What is the auction, I might be interested in the Lebel

 

[pcvando]

I looked the the pictures, yeah... their descriptions are so wrong.

One is a Arisaka, possibly Type 38, with carving on the wood, the pics are horrid, so I cannot say whether it's carving from the soldier who captured it, or some later bubba special. The carving looks like it says "Always." Hmm... maybe a warning to collectors... "always take care of your guns." This rifle is rough.

The second is a Lebel 1886 M93. It's a St. Etienne made one, it needs help... There's a point where "patina" is a sad excuse for a lack of maintenance.
It's also missing parts - most notably the ejector, possibly the tang screws. Poor Lebel.

Hopefully whoever buys it can bring it back to its glory.